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Dennaton Games wants Australian gamers to pirate Hotline Miami 2 if they can’t purchase it legally.

That, at least, was lead designer Jonatan Söderström told one fan upset about the game’s recent ban in the region. Replying to an email from the aforementioned fan, Söderström offered the following advice:

“If it ends up not being release in Australia, just pirate it after release,” he said. “No need to send us any money, just enjoy the game!”

While it was initially unclear whether or not this statement actually came from Söderström, Polygon was able to confirm with the game’s publishers at Devolver Digital that it was authentic. Hotline Miami 2’s ban came to light yesterday after reports surfaced that Australia’s Classification Board had refused to give the game a rating, a move that would subsequently prevent it from being sold within the country. The board refused to give the game a rating based on its inclusion of a rape sequence. Dennaton Games has since stated they won’t be challenging the decision.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/hotline-miami-2-developer-tells-australians-to-pirate-the-game/feed/1Hotline Miami 2 Rape Scene Leads to Australian Banhttp://www.gamefront.com/hotline-miami-2-rape-scene-leads-to-australian-ban/
http://www.gamefront.com/hotline-miami-2-rape-scene-leads-to-australian-ban/#commentsThu, 15 Jan 2015 04:03:09 +0000Stew Shearerhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=296491Hotline Miami 2 will not receive an official release in Australia. The game, due to release in North America at...

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Hotline Miami 2 will not receive an official release in Australia.

The game, due to release in North America at some point in 2015, has been refused classification by Australia’s Classification Board. Speaking to Kotaku, the Classification Board revealed that was denied classification based on the inclusion of a rape sequence. The board’s description of the scene can be read below:

“In the sequence of game play footage titled Midnight Animal, the protagonist character bursts into what appears to be a movie set and explicitly kills 4 people, who collapse to the floor in a pool of copious blood, often accompanied by blood splatter. After stomping on the head of a fifth male character, he strikes a female character wearing red underwear. She is knocked to the floor and is viewed lying face down in a pool of copious blood. The male character is viewed with his pants halfway down, partially exposing his buttocks. He is viewed pinning the female down by the arms and lying on top of her thrusting, implicitly raping her (either rear entry or anally) while her legs are viewed kicking as she struggles beneath him.”

The scene in question is likely the same one that incited controversy after it was included in a demo for the game back in 2013. In response, Dennaton Games opted to remove the sequence from the demo but affirmed that it would likely return in the full game. The Australian Classification Board’s response to Hotline Miami 2 would definitely indicate that it did.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/hotline-miami-2-rape-scene-leads-to-australian-ban/feed/1Hotline Miami 2 Will Bludgeon You To Death With A Golf Club In Q3 2014http://www.gamefront.com/hotline-miami-2-will-bludgeon-you-with-a-golf-club-in-q3-2014/
http://www.gamefront.com/hotline-miami-2-will-bludgeon-you-with-a-golf-club-in-q3-2014/#commentsWed, 29 Jan 2014 01:13:47 +0000Devin Connorshttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=261850Act accordingly.

The official Hotline Miami Facebook page confirmed Hotline Miami 2‘s ship window today. The sequel to everyone’s favorite top-down 80′s massacre montage will be available in Q3 2014 — or by the end of September, if there are no delays.

Those crazy kids over at Devolver Digital are giving away a Playstation 4 AND early access to one of our most anticipated games of 2014.

At Game Front, you know we love Hotline Miami, and all the mayhem that comes with it (usually in automatic shotgun or pool cue form). We also love new hardware, like the PS4…even if it’s still a bit under medium rare, the way we like it. So when Devolver told us they were giving away a PS4 AND pre-release Hotline Miami 2 code? We’re more excited than Jacket when he goes to his favorite VHS shop every Tuesday.

If you want to enter, you need to make a YouTube video (30 seconds or less), telling Devolver why you deserve to win. The rules and fine print are as follows…

Only entries from the United States are eligible to win. Sorry, this is the only way we can appease the monsters we keep chained up in the legal department.

Keep the video entrees under 30 seconds and on YouTube only, telling Devolver Digital and Fork Parker why they deserve to win. Thats like half a minute, so make it count!

“While others have shifted their message, and changed their story, we were consistent in maintaining policies, and a model that is fair, and in tune with consumer desires.”

The biggest news to come out of Sony’s Gamescom 2013 press conference this morning was the announcement of the Playstation 4 launch date of Nov. 15 in the US, and Nov. 29 in Europe. But the presser’s defining moment was this quote, delivered with a smirk by Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO Andrew House.

It’s yet another entry in the long list of ways Sony has delighted in mocking rival Microsoft over that company’s controversial Xbox One policies, policies Microsoft has continued to jettison as it seeks to correct the damage from a PR effort defined early-on by perceived tone-deafness and arrogance. And whatever your opinion on the merits of both consoles or their corporate creators, House’s comments set the stage for what is shaping up to be a vicious, and definitely entertaining battle for gamers’ hard-earned money.

PS4: Definitely A Good Deal?

Sony’s strategy has long been to emphasize that for Playstation customers, the transition to the next generation of consoles will be somewhat less fiscally painful. That strategy was continued this morning when Sony announced a slew of deals for customers, starting with the news that both the 12 GB PS3 and Playstation Vita are dropping in price, to $199.99 in the US, and €199.99 in Europe. The cost of Vita was further sweetened with the announcement that when Playstation 4 launches, “almost all” of its games will feature remote play capability with Vita. That’s a tremendous improvement over the Remote Play service as it currently exists, with support for only a handful of PS3 titles.

Sony also confirmed that the basic Playstation 4 package covered by the in-box price is going to be robust. Music Unlimited has been improved significantly for PS4, with a new interface, access to a catalogue of 22 million songs, and the inclusion of features long asked for, such as the ability to listen to your Music Unlimited playlists while playing video games. In addition, “Over 20 video services and applications coming to PS4″ bundled with the console won’t be locked behind a paywall. The centerpiece of this is a just-announced partnership with Twitch, which will allow gamers to access video game livestreams at the touch of a button at no additional cost.

In a nice change from the usual obliviousness to the fact that not everyone enjoys Internet access on par with residents of Silicon Valley, Sony announced plans to mitigate the notoriously terrible Internet service many Europeans experience, via partnerships with companies like Orange, Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) and Virgin designed to provide broadband access with speeds of up to 200mbps to PS4 owners. While the details of the plans were only alluded to, it was said that at minimum, these deals will ensure that “bits of the pipe are left open to gamers.” No doubt this may come with added cost for those who wish to take advantage, but it’s a step in the right direction.

How do you write about a game that manages to be 100% everything you expected? Especially when you’ve already explained at length why it’s something you should care about in the same way you care about oxygen and food in the first place? That was the dilemma I had coming out of my hands-on demo of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, during an off-site meeting the week of E3 2013.

If you’ve read our previous coverage of Hotline Miami, including my review, then you already know almost everything you need to know about Hotline Miami 2. It’s the late 1980s, Miami is a hellish dystopia, and murder seems to be a way of life for its many citizens. Throw in charming NES-era graphics and a truly spectacular soundtrack, and you have it.

That’s Hotline Miami 2 in a nutshell. If you love the first game – and you should – then you’re going to love this one even more. There. Preview done, I guess.

Just kidding. Fortunately, Hotline Miami 2 also managed to sneak in some major improvements that feel like they should always have been there, even if you didn’t realize it. And in addition, its replication of what worked about Hotline Miami is a triumph rather than a retread. In short, it’s different while being exactly the same. It’s better without noticeably making the original seem worse by comparison. And it’s possibly my favorite game from E3 2013.

Hotline Miami 2 started life as a DLC expansion for Hotline Miami, but shortly after teasing the expansion, Dennaton Games’ Jonatan Söderström announced that the DLC would in fact be a full-on sequel. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve been here before with Saints Row 4. Like Volition’s upcoming sequel, Hotline Miami 2 is absolutely built like crazy on top of its predecessor, but unlike Saints Row 4 (which I loved and am looking forward to seeing completed), Hotline Miami 2 isn’t just escalation and expansion of the previous game, it’s an outright meta commentary on violent games, making the satire inherent in the first game strikingly obvious.

That satire isn’t something I missed, exactly, the first time I played Hotline Miami, but I didn’t pay close enough attention until later playthroughs that the entire plot is itself a commentary on the enjoyment we take from engaging in (usually virtual) violence. The main character of that game was essentially a maniac waiting for phone calls telling him to go kill, which he then did ruthlessly. That’s you, gamers, by the by.

This time out, the focus is on the way we celebrate the violence. It’s been some time since the events of the first game (though still the late 1980s), and the masked killer of Hotline Miami is now a posthumous celebrity. Miami is still reeling from his rampage, and into this comes a new crop of killers seeking to get a bit of his cultural immortality for themselves. During the demo, I played two of these factions (yes, factions. More on that shortly): a movie crew making a film based on the events of Hotline Miami called “The Pig Butcher”, and a group of fans who desperately want to become hired killers just like their idol.

Each segment covered only one scene. With the movie crew, I went around mimicking some of what happened in the first Hotline Miami, wearing a pig mask and killing people until a cutpanel showed the director yelling “cut!” and the shoot wrapped for the day. It appeared this was about to be the jumping off point for an adventure with the actor whom you control, but the level was cut short. Immediately after this, however, we switched to the fans, and got a taste of how Hotline Miami 2 differs from Hotline Miami.

The level with the fans started at a theme party held in honor of the mask killer from the first game. The four members of the fans faction – symbolizing, we were told, the fans’ wish for Hotline Miami 2 to be just like Hotline Miami – are bored. They talk for a second and decide, so it appeared, that after months of talking they’re finally going to go out and live their dream. So they leave the party and relocate to a building filled with people they intend to kill. One of them gets ready to begin murdering, and just like in Hotline Miami, you select which of the various animal masks you want to wear to disguise yourself, and have at it. Here’s where some of Hotline Miami 2′s newer elements kick in.

In Hotline Miami, the various masks you could wear came with their own buffs: for instance, the frog mask the masks gave you longer combos, while the panther mask allowed you to walk faster. Choosing a specific mask could make levels easier or harder and open new strategic options, but they were largely slight adjustments. Hotline Miami 2′s masks, at least with the Fans faction, have much more varied effects. In the demo, I first played using the tiger mask, which prevented its wearer from using firearms or melee weapons of any kind. All kills were punch only, and punches were far stronger than normal.

E3 2013 is in full swing, and we’ve got a great team bringing you all the news on our E3 channel.

As they scour the floor, they’re nominating their favorite games for our Best of Show awards. You may see our plaques on someone’s booth, but you can find the up-to-date list right here in this post. Bookmark, check back, and stay tuned to find out which game will be Game Front’s Best of Show for E3 2013.

Of course, you can also tell us which games you’d pick in the comments.

Hotline Miami is an ultraviolent indie game in which you play a psychopath who goes on a murderous rampage for reasons that aren’t much explained in the story.

For the most part, Hotline Miami’s a highly challenging twitch-action game in which you’re forced to replay a level to perfection by killing everyone in your path and not getting killed in the process of doing so. You’ll die if you get hit even once, and the level immediately restarts in the blink of an eye for you to try again until you succeed. You can read our review of the game here.

In any case, the game’s developer Dennaton told Joystiq that they’re currently developing a sequel to the game titled Hotline Miami 2. It was originally intended as a series of DLC to the original game, but they switched gears and decided to turn it into a proper sequel instead.

Hotline Miami 2 will retain the first game’s early 90s aesthetic, and that the first game’s protagonist, Jacket, will make an appearance at some point in the game. The game will feature stories that run parallel to the first title.

It’ll be out on the PC and the PlayStation Vita with Digital Devolver handling publishing duties.